Another not so nice day in Italy. Cloudy, overcast, and well, rain. Today we are going to try to go to Ercolano, a town destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 70 (the same one that destroyed Pompeii). But the weather isn’t really cooperating. After leaving the ship, it starts to sprinkle, then really rain with strong winds that are blowing our umbrellas inside out. Yuck!
We manage to make it across the street to the Tabacchi where we buy our train/tram ticket without completely drowning. But it’s close! Fortunately, the tram is right there on the tracks and ready to go – so we hop on, avoid some of the wetness, validate our tickets and get to the train station with relative ease. Then down into the station, where, oddly enough, none of the overhead LED boards are working. They are only showing departure of one train – and that train is still sitting on the tracks. Uh oh…strike? We don’t think so, because we know there is a strike on Sunday when we are in Livorno, and normally they wouldn’t have a surprise strike – they plan them. Hmmmm…..we go through the turnstiles and Ed is having a problem with his ticket. The turnstile won’t open, he tries it a couple of times, and finally goes to a different turnstile that works. Oh, that would be ugly! After standing around with a whole bunch of other people, we exit and go back upstairs to the ticket office. We ask there – and she says, yes the train to Sorrento will come in 10 minutes, just look for it. Okkkaaaayyyy.
Back down to the turnstiles, Ed’s still having issues with the ticket. Sigh…but it finally works and we go to mill about the tracks once more. Finally, the train does indeed come – phew! - and we hop aboard and are off. We arrive at the Ercolano station without incident and find our way down the street to the arched entrance of the ruins. Passing through the arch you get your first glimpse of the amazingly preserved city. Incredible! The buildings just stretch out in this carved out section of land below the new town….fantastic!
We pay our admission fee, then skirt the excavation site on the long walk to the entrance and gift shop. There we have to buy a map (no free maps here. Pooh!), but it’s must here – even though the streets are all laid out in easy perpendicular blocks, you’d never know what to look for or what you should see if you aren’t on a guided tour.
The city is preserved so well because of how the volcano erupted and the ash fell. Only a little bit of ash fell on Ercolano, but six flows of super heated mud gradually covered the city. The mud was so hot, that it actually carbonized the wood and prevented the buildings from collapsing. Then the volcanic rock that covered the site for 1700 years formed an airtight seal, keeping everything exactly as it was on the fateful day of the eruption. that’s why there are actually buildings with upper stories completely intact and beautiful frescoes and mosaics throughout the site.
Another bonus of Ercolano is that it is hard for tour buses to get to the site, so it is not overrun with tourists. As on the day we were visited – there weren’t more than maybe 50 people spread through the entire site. Whether that was due to the impending thunderstorms or just the norm, we’ll never know, but it was fabulous walking around without crowds, being able to enjoy the well preserved ruins by ourselves!
We wandered down the first street (Cardo III) peaking into the House of Argus and House of the Genius – all interconnected and open to each other with walkways and doorways. And an incredible red fresco still intact on one of the walls. Then we crossed over to the House of the Hotel – so named because it has so many rooms, it seems like it must be a hotel. also outside the “hotel” is a small garden with an apple tree and flower gardens.
Next we meander through the House of the Skeleton (don’t know, I’m not asking!) and end up out on Cardo IV where it begins to sprinkle and start to prioritize what we want to see. We head off for the House of the mosaic Atrium and find that easily enough.
Then we go in search of the urban baths which proves harder to locate. In the meantime, we’re just wandering around, soaking up all this incredible ruin. Astonishing – you can really see how people lived in ancient times, the roads made with cobblestones and arched in the center for drainage, the incredibly delicate and intricate mosaics and the crazily picturesque and sometimes erotic frescoes. It’s quite an experience!
After getting lost trying to find the College of Augustals, we stumble onto the House of Neptune and Amphitrite which has an incredible mosaic along with what appears to be a tomb area. And we stumble in just in time too – because there is at least shelter here after entering the courtyard and the skies have decided to completely open up. Monsoon city! So, we take advantage of the downpour and stand and just absorb the beauty of the room and think about how it once must have been, what it must have been to live there, in that era…..
Finally the rain subsides enough for us to leave our cover and we wander about trying to see as much as possible before the next downpour. It’s well worth the wetness though – so superior to Pompeii, and amazing in its solitude.
We trudge back up the long slope leaving Ercolano and head back out up the hill to the train station. It’s still sort of raining, but we decide, what the heck – we’ve got our tickets, might as well use them, so we wait for the next train to Sorrento – where we will have some lunch and hopefully find some of those delicious sugar coated almonds!
We arrive in Sorrento no worse for wear, although the train was drenched. I mean an inch to an inch and a half of water was sloshing around inside on the train floor. Wow! But it’s relatively clear when we hit Sorrento, we don’t even need our umbrellas (yes!). We meander – as we always do there. Up and down the little narrow side streets – all the way to that great B&B where we ate last time we were here. Since it’s so wet, they aren’t serving (their only serving space is all outdoors, and not undercover). We backtrack, and find a store selling herbs – but that also sells the exact sugar coated almonds we bought from the B&B – they are SO good (and yes, SO bad!). We pick up bags of lemon, the pear and ricotta and dark chocolate! Yum. I also manage to find a bag of those Tarallini cracker things I fell in love with in Salerno. Oh carb hell - it is so good!
After wandering aimlessly, we settle on Old Taverna Sorrintina (since 1860) for lunch because they advertise a pizza and beer for 7 euros. It’s an adorable little place.
But, the advertised pizza is only a Margherita pizza, and the beer teeny (and it’s only like a 50 euro cent discount), so we end up sharing a scrumptious meal of artichoke, ham, tomato, mushroom and mozzarella pizza and an octopus salad.
Plus an adorable carafe of wine (we did NOT share that!) and a couple of beers. Heck – we’re on the train!
Back to the train we go, loaded with our purchases, and our stomachs loaded with good food and alcohol (the first of our two days of being bad with food!).
We both manage to nap on the train, then hop the tram in Naples and head back to the port. We try, very unsuccessfully to get free wi-fi at one of the port restaurants, but only manage to spend too much money on too little beer and lousy wine. Sigh..we’re just going to have to put up with the ship services for now.
Back aboard, we fall into our now accepted routine….gym, Vines for app’s, dinner and then tonight, the comedian in Explorers. Tomorrow – Rome! And another bad carb day – but we’ve planned for this!
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